


rising from the ashes (starting over)

by poetictragedy



Series: thirty prompts [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Sibling Incest, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-07
Updated: 2013-03-07
Packaged: 2017-12-04 13:57:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/711498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poetictragedy/pseuds/poetictragedy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura and Derek are the only members of their family to make it out of the fire without being killed or seriously injured and they have to move on without their parents, without the pack that raised them both. This new life doesn't just mean moving and starting fresh, but it also means they don't have to hide their feelings for each other anymore. Feelings, of course, neither of them have acted on until after the fire.</p><hr/><p>“This is it,” Laura mumbles and moves around so she’s laying on Derek, their bodies lining up almost perfectly.</p><p>“What are you <em>talking about</em>?”</p><p>“It’s just us now and we have to start all over. Like phoenixes, rising from the ashes and starting over.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	rising from the ashes (starting over)

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: beginning.
> 
> I apologize for any mistakes you find.

The night after the fire, Laura scrapes together enough money to rent a motel room for a couple of nights. It’s not much, she knows that, but she couldn’t stand the thought of staying in someone’s house, while they looked at her and Derek like the orphans they were. She also knows that she could have gotten someone to take Derek in without a problem but the kid didn’t want to leave her; he  _begged_  Laura to let him stay.

So there they are: sitting on a cheap motel bed with what little of their belongings they have left strewn around on the floor. She’s got an arm around Derek’s shoulders, rubbing his bicep lightly, letting him know that it’s all going to be okay. And Derek’s mumbling about it all being his fault, about how he shouldn’t have trusted Kate, and Laura laughs.

“What are you laughing at?” Derek asks, his voice cracking slightly.

“It wasn’t your fault,” is Laura’s automatic answer and it’s the truth.  _Derek_  didn’t burn their house down; _Derek_  didn’t kill their family;  _Derek_  didn’t do anything but fall in love with a psychopath 

Not that Laura is about to say that to him, even if it is true.

They fall into an uncomfortable silence and Laura can hear Derek sniffling, can smell the tears in the air, and it makes her heart ache. She brings her other arm up and wraps them both around Derek, pulling him into a comforting hug. When he presses his face against her chest, Laura rests her chin atop his head and runs her fingers through his hair.

Long, silent moments pass and soon Derek is snoring lightly, his arms wrapped so tight around Laura’s waist that she can hardly breathe — but she doesn’t mind. She lets Derek cling to her and she clings right back, her fingers running through his hair, a soft hum settling in her throat.

Derek eventually wakes up and pulls away without a word. He stalks off to the bathroom, pulling his ash-covered sweater off, and throws it onto the floor behind him. Some of the soot shakes off and falls onto the dark red carpet; it’s all Laura notices.

Neither of them have changed since the police dragged them away from the fire and Laura looks down at her own clothes. Ash covers the front of her t-shirt — her father’s t-shirt — and she runs her fingers through it slowly, watching it smear across the fabric.

A scream builds in her throat and she lets it die away. She’ll scream and cry about what happened later, after she makes sure Derek is okay, but not a moment before.

The shower startles her and Laura looks up, rolling her eyes when she realizes that Derek left the bathroom door wide open. His dark jeans are lying on the tiles in a heap of fabric and she stands, moving over to pick them up. 

“Get out,” Derek snaps and his voice is so harsh that Laura blinks at him. That cannot be the voice of her baby brother, she thinks, and she swallows, grabbing the jeans before retreating back to the bedroom.

Still, the bathroom door remains open.

The sound of water hitting the porcelain is comforting and Laura listens to it as she gathers Derek’s sweater. She inhales, taking in the scent of fire and burning wood; ash and smoke; blood and death. 

And then she hears it: sobbing. Not the quiet crying from before but chest-heaving sobs that only make the lump in her throat grow impossibly larger. 

Laura drops the clothes she’d been holding and turns back to the bathroom, toeing out of her shoes before kicking them away. She sees Derek sitting in the middle of the tub with his knees brought to his chest, arms wrapped around them. The steady stream of water hits him on the back and he doesn’t move, just sobs harder, his nails digging into his forearms.

“Oh, Derek,” Laura whispers, moving to turn the water off, ignoring the noises of protest she gets from her brother. She doesn’t think twice about was she’s doing and steps into the bathtub, sitting down in the water in front of Derek. 

At first, Derek just stays curled up into a ball but after a moment, he moves closer. She notices that he hasn’t taken his boxers off and thinks that it’s a good thing; things would be awkward if Derek were naked and she were in the tub with him.

Derek’s eyes are red, puffy, and glazed over with tears when he looks up at Laura, who just smiles shakily and holds her arms out to him. He doesn’t waste any time launching himself forward, the water sloshing around in the tub as he moves. Both of his arms go around Laura’s neck and she holds onto her brother, smoothing a hand down his back slowly.

“It’s okay,” she whispers, her voice cracking a little, and she continues to move her fingers along Derek’s wet skin. He’s crying against her neck this time, his breath coming out hot and his tears stinging her skin but she doesn’t care; if it were anyone else, she would. But not with Derek.

After sobbing for a moment, Derek pulls back and mumbles, “I’m sorry.”

“And I told you it’s not your fault,” Laura replies, narrowing her eyes slightly. “Kate is  _fucked_  in the head and she knew what she was doing, manipulating you to get to us.”

“I _let_  her.”

Laura shakes her head and puts both hands on Derek’s face, smiling softly at him. “You were a horny teenage boy that liked a pretty girl, who just so happened to like you back. You didn’t do anything wrong,” she says.

“But — mom and dad and — “

“They wouldn’t be mad at you for what you did. All they ever wanted was for you to be happy and, as far as they were concerned, you were happy — at least for a while.”

This brings on fresh tears and Laura chews her lower lip, brushing them away as soon as they fall. She knows that she has to take care of Derek, that she has to be the Alpha now, but she doesn’t know if she can.

Neither of them speak for a while and the water starts to turn cold. That’s when Laura gets Derek out of the tub and she takes him to the bedroom, laying him down on the mattress. She finds a clean, dry pair of clothes for both of them and they get dressed without saying a word.

When Laura climbs into bed, Derek is right behind her, and he wraps his arms around her waist, his face pressed against the crook of her neck like it was made to be there. She finds his hand and laces their fingers together, squeezing gently to let Derek know, for the countless time, that it’s going to be okay.

The clock on the wall ticks and Laura listens to it, trying to keep herself calm but it’s in the moments like this that she thinks about everything. She thinks about the fire and about Kate, how she used her little brother to kill their family, and she gets angry.

Most of all, though, she thinks about how Kate tricked Derek into thinking that she cared about him. That she wanted him just as badly as he wanted her.

With her throat tightening, Laura turns over in Derek’s arms, curling her own between their bodies. She presses her face to her hands and lets the sobs rock her body, her shoulders trembling as she cries. And Derek lets her but he doesn’t let her think that she’s alone; he runs his hand through her hair, rubs her back, and tells  _her_  that it’s going to be okay.

Laura eventually falls asleep in the warm — and yet still too lanky — arms of Derek, her face pressed against is neck, breathing in his familiar, comforting scent. She doesn’t wake up until the morning, when the sun pours in through the window, and she looks up at Derek, teeth worrying over his lower lip. 

When Derek sleeps, he looks peacefully and younger than he really is. It makes Laura smile and she scoots up, pressing a kiss to the bridge of his nose, humming against his skin. The warm sun is hitting her bare legs and she pries herself away from Derek’s arms, yawning as she stands and stretches.

Derek wakes up not long after Laura and he watches her with a sleepy expression, his hands folded on the middle of his chest. She comes back to bed a few minutes later and practically curls up on his chest, her head tucked underneath Derek’s chin.

Both of them know that they need to get up and get ready before everyone makes their appearances but neither of them want to. Laura is too exhausted to move away from Derek and he’s too upset to move her or to comment about her being too close.

“This is it,” Laura mumbles and moves around so she’s laying on Derek, their bodies lining up almost perfectly.

“What are you  _talking about_?”

“It’s just us now and we have to start all over. Like phoenixes, rising from the ashes and starting over.”

Snorting, Derek scrubs a hand down his face and yawns. “ _Seriously_?”

“Look,” she says and moves so that she’s straddling Derek, not thinking too much about it, “we can  _never_  go back to that house. Beacon Hills will never be our home again so we have to start new.”

“Like phoenixes…” Derek repeats.

Laura nods her head firmly and leans down, pressing a kiss to the tip of his nose. “Like phoenixes — we rise from the flames and the ash, unscathed and all alone,” she whispers.

With Laura’s mouth so close to his, Derek shudders and looks up at her, moving his hands to touch her hips. Being this close isn’t uncommon for them but it hasn’t happened in a while, since Derek started seeing Kate, and he was starting to wonder if it would ever happen again.

There’s a voice in the back of his mind (and if  _that_  doesn’t mean he’s crazy, then what does?) that tells him to do it. To press his lips to Laura’s and kiss her like he’s wanted to so many times before. 

After all, they are the only ones left.

Derek takes a deep breath and leans up, slotting their lips together. He hears Laura gasp and feels her hot breath against his mouth and for a moment, he’s worried she’s going to push him away.

She doesn’t.

The kiss gets deepened and Laura moves her hands to Derek’s neck, holding onto it as she closes her eyes. She moves against him, just barely, and he opens his mouth on a moan, allowing her tongue to slip past his lips. 

Both moan at the same time when Laura’s tongue presses against Derek’s and he slips his hand up her side, stopping just underneath her rib cage, too afraid to go any higher. He’s afraid to push any further, too, so he pulls back from Laura and lays his head on the pillow, breathing hard.

No one says anything for a moment and it’s Laura who breaks the ice.

“That was…” she pauses and bites her lip before continuing, “good.”

Derek snorts and covers his face with a bent arm. “Good? Laura, you’re  _my sister_  — we weren’t supposed to do that,” he mumbles.

“We weren’t supposed to do a lot of things, Derek, but we did them anyway.”

“Like what?”

Laura purses her lips and thinks for a moment. “Like sleeping in the same bed together and you letting me straddle you like this,” she answers.

“ _You’re_  the one that’s straddling me!”

“But you never push me off,” Laura points out, “and you never seem to be bothered by it. Up until you met Kate, of course, and she became the wedge that drove us apart.”

Derek’s chest tightens when he hears that and he sighs, pulling his arm away to look up at Laura, chewing on his lip. “We can’t do this,” he says, simply, his voice sounding pained.

“No one knows that we’re siblings.”

“The whole freaking town knows!”

“Well, then, we’ll just move. Go somewhere no one knows us and we can do this as often as you like.”

A chuckle rises in Derek’s throat and it escapes as a broken-sounding noise. He shakes his head and wraps his arms around Laura, pulling her onto the mattress beside him. They touch foreheads and he closes his eyes, breathing in slowly.

“It’ll be a new beginning for both of us,” Laura whispers, moving her hand across the curve of Derek’s jaw. “Just think about it.” With that, she kisses his lips quickly and settles in, her face pressed against the side of his neck.

Derek thinks about it until he falls asleep, his body pressed flush against Laura’s, and when they wake up, the two of them talk about it. Laura says they can go to New York, meet up with one of the packs their parents worked with, or they could start their own pack — just the two of them.

Without hesitation, Derek agrees and when the insurance money comes in, they disappear from Beacon Hills. When they get to New York, no one looks at them like they’re orphans and no one glances at them twice when they see Derek holding Laura’s hand.

The beginning of their new life is perfect — but it won’t stay that way forever.


End file.
